Metro Papineau scenes

Reeling off another set of paintings at Metro Papineau, I made the most of realtively mild summer weather. Later this week its gonna be a schorcher! This one shows a nice flower bed behind a bench, and part of the metro and adjacent outdoor flower store in the background. 

Papineau metro bench flower bed, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Another scene of the flower shop, with the city and a round-glass bulb lamp in the background. I liked the composition, where solid heavy buildings seem to be floating on delicate flowers. 

City flower shop, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

You don't see these very often anymore, a public telephone. Nobody was using it incidentally. I painted it to look like a robot, maybe its a Dr. Who character invading an alternative reality Earth? Metro grocery store in the background has a P instead of an M. 

Public telephone, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Finally, a scene of the Cartier bridge soaring over a big condo building. You can see bikes and cars going past on the bridge which is neat. I sometime ride up there and make paintings, will do later int he summer if I get the chance. I did a lot of paintings today, 14 I think, which was neat. Lately I was listening to the late American punk band called the Ramones. Their songs were like 2 minutes long and very simple. Kind of like my location art, maybe I can call these punk paintings? 

Bridge over condos, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Scenes around Jacques Cartier bridge

This billboard in the U-Haul rent a van parking lot had nothing on it, but I embellished my own initials and year. In the lower right you can see part of the amusement park called La Ronde. It was a tricky painting to do because of all the odd angles, and I was looking up. 

Billboard cartier bridge looking up, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 A couple of grassy areas separate two access highways, there are pine tree and deciduous trees here, providing good shade. In the background you can see glimpses of the old Molson's brewery, now defunct. 

Trees grass near Cartier bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The tall brick and stone support beam had interesting colours and patterns. I painted this from near the U-Haul parking lot. It was a good location albeit kind of noisy. Being Saturday, there was probably less traffic than usual. 

Support Cartier bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

This truck went by really fast and I tried to paint it from memory. It might have been a gas truck or a milk truck. Better yet, maybe it was a beer truck. 

Metal cyliner truck, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Turning to face the U-Haul parking lot, here is a scene with a few of the trucks and the massive storage building in the background. Part of Molson's sign can be seen in the upper right. 

U-Haul parking lot, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Shifting over to the east a little bit, under the shadow of the Cartier bridge, I made this painting looking west with a view of the old CBC radio tower building. This is also where st Catherine's and Notre Dame avenue converge. 

CBC building converging highways, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Better turn left here! I liked the arrangement of the warning signs, and how the Cartier bridge cut an angle across the sky. Making the traffic light green matched the overall colour scheme. 

Warning signs under Cartier bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Same location looking east into the train yard, it has 7 tracks but I only fit 5 into this small painting. Train cars in orange, maroon and blue were stacked along the tracks. Another billboard had my initials on it., what a coincidence. 

Curving tracks, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Same location looking west, with a view of the tracks, train cars, and st Lawrence river in the middle. In the distance is probably Victoria bridge. As I painted a lot today, the sky was getting greener and rougher. I had spare brushes that were clean but was not thinking much. 

River and train cars, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

 

Dépanneur Elephant ferme

Down in the old Shaughnessy village there is a dépanneur called Elephant, its been closed for good now. The adjacent building is also shuttered and boarded up, looking like a new development waiting to happen. Its called gentrification, when the old neighborhoods get upgraded to glass condos and hipster cafes. I stood really close to the storefront, on the sidewalk looking at an angle. Cars kept going into the alleyway near where I was standing, there must have been something really good in that alley but I didn't explore further. 

Dépanneur  Elephant ferme, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

 

Looking back, London Ontario flowers, trees, smoke stack

Here are more from the old collection of London Ontario done sometime between 1998 and 2004. These were probably later, since I steadily improved over this time period. In this example, some purple flowers grew in an old fashioned tiled planter. If I could go back in time and give myself a tube of quinacridone purple (PV55) it would have been great to use. I probably mixed french ultramarine (PB28) with alizarian crimson (PR83), or maybe qunacridone rose (PV19). 

Tiled planter purple flowers, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Near Saugeen Maitland residence, I know the exact location, here is a detailed painting of a White flower tree (probably Magnolia), and a red flowering bed. Looking back, I am impressed and inspired with the amount of detail I got into these small paintings. it must have taken some time, and required small brushes. I see side-drag texturing on the asphalt, and overpainting of the grass texture just like I do today. 

White flower tree red flower bed, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

The University of Western was building lots of new residence buildings back then, this was a construction dumpster on campus. My love of painting garbage bins and dumpsters goes way back. In fact, I have a few such paintings from 1995/96 by first season painting outdoors. I will try to dig those ones up from the archive. 

Turquoise dumpster, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Also on University of Western campus, this rock had a detailed pattern chiseled into its surface. I managed to capture the bluish shadows, against a lime-green background. Notice the blue pine tree in the background upper right, it seems to be the correct shade. 

Rock sculpture, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

 

Another highliy detailed painting, I compsed the red-orange liles against a dark green background, with a streak of light going across the lawn. Some pylons lay on their side to left. Bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184) would have been excellent for this painting, and pyrol orange (PO73). I really took on a tough subject here. 

Red lilies close up, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x 

One of the many campus buildings, with its limestone facade, illuminated by a setting sun. It was a neat composition, to cut the scene high like this, and focus on the light/shadow effect. Maybe I should give myself more credit for this period of painting in my life. Now that I make th blog it helps see everything in context. 

Sunset top of building, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x

Lastly, a delicate painting of a plume of smoke coming from the top of a building, probably steam coming out of an autoclave oven in the science building. The sun was setting which created an interesting orange halo around the dense plume. Its a tough effect to pull off, in fact I tried something like this last year, although in the winter. Maybe if I go out painting tomorrow which seems likely since its Saturday I can take on some more challenging scenes like this, of course, every painting is a challenge!

Sunset plume of smoke, watercolour 5 x 7", 200x 

 

Demo corner, sunlight, excavator

Not too far from Cabot square, on st Catherine's street, something rather was bulldozed to make way for new development. The adjacent building's wall still had an imprint of a staircase which was neat, and eerie. The foundation was made of old stone wall, topped with red brick. You don't get to see this stuff often, and soon there will be a gleaming glass building here.  

Old wall impressions, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Looking through the fence from another angle, the sun was coming through, casting a shadow on the sidewalk. A pile of bricks remained from the demolition. You see light coming through, I commented awhile ago how all of downtown Montreal is nearly in shadow now due to the dense skyscrapers. 

Bricks on sidewalk, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

A huge excavator vehicle sat idle, with its scooper resting on a sheet of iron. I painted it in almost an abstract way, so you have to look at the painting a bit to start to see the form. The key to all this was the metal hydraulic cylinder in the upper middle of the painting. It was one of the few objects glimmerings against an earth brown background. 

Excavator, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Shaughnessy village, Cabot Square, Lamborghini

Standing near Cabot Square, I made a painting of the rooftops, typical of Shaughnessy village. the A-frame rooftop windows, with old brick facades were really popular a long time ago. Now many buildings are replaced with soaring brick and glass condo towers. 

Shaughnessy village rooftops, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Here is one of the newer condos, gleaming white with stylish green glass windows and balconies. The adjacent condo was casting a long shadow across its facade. To paint something like this, the washes have to be done fast, and correct the first time. Messing around with the washes leads to their collapse. I got a two-toned shadow by varying the purple mix with green (PG7) and red-orange (PO73). 

Long shadow condo tower, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

A Chinese food restaurant on the corner, with condo towers and part of an old triplex at the bottom right. Anchoring the composition is a traffic sign and lights. I amped up colour chroma for this one to inject some excitement into the painting. I had accidentally inhaled some odd-smelling smoke while walking around in Cabot square too, which may have altered my perception slightly. 

Busy corner Shaughnessy village, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Standing on the same corner I reeled off a number of paintings, including this one of Cabot square in the background and a fancy sports car in the foreground. It just stopped briefly for a traffic light, I think it was my Lamborghini, the valet was just returning it to me. 

Cabot square fancy car, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Westhaven field, Rona parking lot

Back to watercolours on location, I just posted a slew of digital images, and had not painted outside for several days until this Wednesday. This scene was done at the Westhaven field near the train tracks, just across from Raffi auto. Yellow buttercups grow this time of year, I did a painting of chair in a field of yellow buttercups one of my all time favorites. 

Field yellow flowers, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

The bottom of the painting shows part of a community garden in the Westhaven field, while Rona sits in the background. Rona actually donated the land to the community which was a decent thing to do.

Rona rear community garden, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Lets hope this electrical pole isn't the harbinger of construction. For now, it was just a funny thing to paint, it seemed to have an orange top hat, and was singing show tunes? 

Electrical pole tophat, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Using my newfound knowledge of glow effects (learned from using digital sketchbook app), I could create a realistic looking interior track light effect. Done with brush and watercolour its a trick thing to get right. The main idea was the giant tree, and how it seemed to be growing out of the auto shop. Its actually behind the auto shop along the train tracks. 

Raffi interior big tree, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Great piles of wooden palettes were stacked up in the Rona parking lot. Mainly I stood here to get shade from a nearby tree, and painted the scene up close. The palettes were done loosely using a blend of earth colours and blue. 

Palettes in shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Also in the Rona parking lot there is a donation bin in the corner, and someone left this old couch sitting out. I painted a couch on the curb in London Ontario once, I will try to dig up that painting and scan it again. This one turned out pretty good, it has a nice breezy feel to it. In the background is the recently completed massive condo building on st Jacques street. 

Donation couch, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026